What to Expect When Building an ICF Home

May 5, 2022

Custom home building is growing in popularity. In fact, according to Market Watch, new housing projects were up by 12% in 2020 and that number continues to grow. And among this boom in custom homes is an increase in insulated concrete form (ICF) homes.

What is an ICF Home?

ICFs are pre-made forms that fit together like legos or large interlocking blocks. ICF homes bring a host of benefits including thermal insulation, energy efficiency, structural integrity, acoustic insulation, and so much more. It's no surprise that home builders are opting for this type of structure more and more.

If you're sold on the concept of an ICF home, you need to prepare yourself for the home building steps. A custom ICF home builder can assist you in the process. It's important to sit down with your home builder at the very beginning of the process. Your home builder can also all your questions, address any issues, and clear up any confusion or uncertainty you may have about the process.

Because building a custom home is such a complex and involved process, you want to be sure you're prepared for all the possibilities. While your contractor will of course be doing all of the planning and work for you, it's crucial that you are still involved in the process. After all, this is your future home!

Involvement in the Process

Meeting regularly with your contractor throughout the process is a great way to ensure that all is running according to plan. If your contractor runs into any issues or mishaps, they can inform you so that you can alleviate the problem together. It's important that you stay informed on all steps of the process and know exactly where you are in terms of progress. As this home's future owner, this is non-negotiable!

You should also do plenty of research before and during this process. While a good contractor will provide you with all the information you need to know, there's always something more to learn. You want to have as many facts as possible about your future ICF home.

The Internet is a great resource for information about ICF homes. You can even join a virtual community of other ICF homeowners to start learning more about life with an ICF. Knowledge is power, and the more you know about your home, the more you will get out of it!

< Older Post Newer Post >

New Love Under Construction

By Tina Sumpter • December 20, 2025

Are you that person who drives by a beautiful home and says, “one day, I’m going to build my dream home?” Well I’m about to build my dream home and I’m going to open up every aspect of it to show you how it all goes down. The good, bad and the ugly. The fun and not so fun parts, and then there is the changing your mind umpteen times just to go back to your original thought. It is going to be a wild journey so come on in and experience what my life is like for the next 6-9 months. Right now I’m in Indiana for Thanksgiving and had this bright idea to do a blog about my upcoming build. Quick background, my name is Tina Sumpter soon to be Tina Hall. I work for Bob Cook Homes here in Derby, Kansas. Where you have the most captivating sunrises and sunsets, wind is utterly stupid. Trees have a permanent lean because of the vicious winds. Anyway, back to me, I have been with BCH for about 4 years, I dabble in everything to phones, permits, billing, change orders, electrical and trim walk throughs, too much to list, in my days it was called “Girl Friday” (Google it😉). My passion is painting furniture but I put that aside temporarily because honestly that doesn’t pay the bills, it’s just a passion. I was married 32 years, then suddenly I became a widow, now 8 years later, I am going to remarry a lovely young 😉man, Lonny. We both have homes with pasts. But our future together needed to start off on the right path, our path. We looked and looked at homes to buy but it is krazee hard for both of us to find what each other likes. So we decided to build a home. Nothing fancy, but new beginnings. So come along with me on this journey and I hope I do BCH justice, I promise to be honest and show you all the “WTHeck” moments, “for Pete’s-sake, what were you thinking” moments, to “that makes no sense” moments. Going to be an experience to say the least. Ready, set, Go…..